The exhibition is the outcome of the cooperation of the Central European University Roma Access Program students and graduates with the photographer András Jókúti. The title refers to the "accessories" being attached to the individuals of the Roma community by mainstream society. The white of the background and of our outfits alludes to the white of a canvas and/or tabula rasa, both sharing the potential of displaying whatever imaginable content. White thus silences our individual selves, our subjectivities, which are not primary subjects of the representation, while simultaneously enables, as a fundamental element of the photographs, to stand for the interlinking experience of being a Roma. As all colors are encompassed in white, similarly we conceive Roma identity as an empty-and-potent fluid concept covering a wide range of self-perceptions, self-representations and externally ascribed meanings, rather than a tangible phenomenon with sharp and distinct contours. By exposing its openness and transformability we intervene into the processes and practices through which Roma identity is being internally and externally re-defined, negotiated and politicized. In this project we attempt to visualize the familiarizing yet alienating external perception and misrecognition by using accessories which symbolize the most notorious stereotypes on Roma, being hanged on us. The typical roles evoked by these props are accentuated by us either assuming neutral facial expressions and body postures, or by softening down the individual body language, which is instrumentalized only if it serves constructing a symbolic composition. By doing so, we strove to make clear that persons in the photographs do not represent or "play" the characters elicited by the symbols. By contrasting the white background and the accessories, we wish to make a stand against narrow-mindedness and confinement of these restrictive stereotypes, with the abundance and diversity of our real selves unified in and symbolized by the dominant white color.

photography: andrás jókúti

concept: nikola ludlová & joci márton

participants:

ismael cortés gómez (spain, relp),

lászló oliver jakab (hungary, rgpp),

krisztina benő (hungary, relp alumna),

sebijan fejzula (macedonia, rgpp alumna),

nadire redjepi (macedonia, rgpp),

elvis saciri (macedonia, rgpp),

semiha harapi (albania, relp),

fatma göl (turkey, relp),

marek baláž (the slovak republic, rgpp)

The exhibition was realized with support and help of the Roma Access Program and Center for Arts and Culture.